Are Ebooks Better When They're Shorter?

Yeah, I know. Its been a couple of months since I wrote one of these, but I've been busy trying to make a splash in the ebook world. More on that later. Not to mention, I don't like to just write to see myself in print...we'll unless you take ebooks into consideration...then I like it a lot!

Speaking of ebooks (nice segue), I don't know if I'm the only one that's noticed this, but it seems the voracious ebook readers out there are latching on to the shorter, less wordy cousins of the longer reads.

I think James Patterson sort of started this trend with his short, fast-reading chapters and then others seemed to follow. I noticed how much quicker I read his books, and then got on to the next one. I see that same kind of trend in ebook world. I'm a prime example. I've down loaded a ton of ebooks and find myself getting bogged down on the longer reads, especially if they drag out a point here or there. But folks like Joe Konrath, John Locke, Amanada Hocking, J.Carson Black, and Patterson, have had great success by telling a crisp, fast moving tale that doesn't take weeks to read. Even in my limited experince of just four months, I get at least one comment a day on folks that have read Caribbean Moon one day and Deceitful Moon the next. Both are around 275-300 pages and move very quickly.

Is this a sign of the times regarding attention spans, or do readers really want to fill there lives with new, fresh adventures as often as possible?

So tell me what you think, and does this make sense?


P.S. I said I'd address the success of Caribbean Moon and Deceitful Moon, so here goes: CM is now #4 in Kindle Books and  store, DM is # 14 as of this morning...still trying figure things out, but so far, so good. :)

Rick

Is More Better?

I recently read a popular blog where the the author says he has over 40 titles on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. Very prolific. There are all kinds of works from short stories to collaborations to novels. I like this author and have read many of his works. But does that kind of production make it more of a business than an art? Is that how it should be?

I keep thinking of that line in Jurassic Park "...just because we can, doesn't mean we should..." But I also think of "...those that can, should..."

Back in the day, if a writer released two books in a year, it was an anomaly, a freak of nature. Now, for some, and you know who you are, it's one every two to three months, ignoring all of the previous taboos involved in this business.
No production concerns, no agent to slow down the process, and NO gatekeeper persona to sift through. Just write and publish. Write and publish. Write and publish.

Is this new wave a good thing for the publishing world? More specifically, the indie world?
Tell me what you think.

New Start to the Blog thing...

I Started Over...

I've dedicated myself to restarting this blog. The first few entries were about my journey into publishing, but there are only about a billion people doing the same thing...such a rookie... so I'm going a different direction.
I'm pretty sure there are some wonderful stories out there, so instead of reading about me...well at least ALL of the time, I'm going to let you begin to read about others, authors and readers. In the 35 days since I published Caribbean Moon , I've met some absolutely wonderful folks. I had no idea writers, indie (independent) and legacy writers, were so supportive. Being an ex-jock, I suspected there was nothing but guantlets of competion laid down hourly and may the best writer, author, win. Once again, I was wrong...my wife would never believe what just came out of my mouth...err...my keyboard. I don't ask for directions, either. :)
So in the coming weeks, time permiting, you're going to get the opportunity to meet some extraordinary folks with unique journeys and dream destinations. I hope they grow to mean as much to you as they have to me and that you discover some truly talented writers not named King, Patterson, Robb, and, of course, Murcer!